Zimbabwe will not accept genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs as part of mostly U.S. aid shipments to its famine-threatened population, its agriculture minister, Joseph Made, said on Saturday.

"We do not accept genetically modified material into Zimbabwe," Made told Reuters in Johannesburg following the arrival of President Robert Mugabe for the Earth Summit.

Of six southern African nations threatened by famine, Zambia has also rejected GM grain. Most of it comes from the United States, which is providing the bulk of food aid in the region.

Zambia has said it shares European fears that GM is not safe and wants its own scientists to probe the issue. Western nations have accused Mugabe's government of hurting output in southern Africa's "breadbasket" through land seizures from white farmers.

Zimbabwe's government is using a policy of "selective starvation" to punish political opponents, enrich supporters and ensure a victory in local elections next month

Zimbabwe's government is using a policy of "selective starvation" to punish political opponents, enrich supporters and ensure a victory in local elections next month, according to an American researcher who just completed a weeklong visit to the south African country. John Prendergast, who heads the Africa program for the Belgian-based International Crisis Group, said in a telephone interview yesterday from Kenya that the policy of manipulating the food supply has proved even more effective for the government of President Robert Mugabe than direct violence and intimidation of his political opponents.
"What we saw was selective starvation, the use of food as a political weapon," he said.
"Local officials were told that if they didn't deliver the vote, they wouldn't get food for their districts. That's a pretty frightening message in a region that's already facing a major food shortage," Mr. Prendergast said.
Mr. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 22 years, has feuded bitterly with Britain, the United States and other Western governments in recent months over a disputed March presidential election and a land redistribution program that has forcibly displaced about half of the 4,500 white Zimbabwean farmers who were the backbone of the country's agricultural economy.
With southern Africa in the grip of a 4-year drought, U.S. Agency for International Development chief Andrew Natsios said in South Africa he was "very, very alarmed by what is happening" in Zimbabwe.
"The wrong policies are in place, and things are sliding fairly rapidly there," Mr. Natsios told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. summit on development now under way in Johannesburg.